Sunday evening felt like a fairytale--an abbreviated, but fantastically magical Cinderella story. After an afternoon of soaking up sunshine in Le Jardin du Luxembourg, mon mari and I hustled back home to put on our finest and head back out into the Paris twilight. When you're wearing heels instead of Converse, even the Paris metro can transform itself into something more romantic and carriage like. Five stops from home, we were greeted above ground by Paris's beaux-arts beauty L'Opéra Garnier; its spectacular gilded roof lighting our path to la place Vendôme. Within mere minutes we arrived at our final anniversary date destination: The Hemingway Bar at the Ritz Paris.

We spent the next two hours tucked into our bar seats sipping wildly expensive cocktails and munching on the most delicious mix of snacks all the while studying the bar's extensive Hemingway memorabilia. Halfway into my rose adorned cocktail, mon mari said he had a surprise. In homage to Hemingway's extraordinary talents, the bar accepts letters sent to aspiring writers. Knowing I hold good writing to be the highest art form and my own dreams of writing something more substantive than a blog post, mon mari sent me a letter to pick up at the bar. Only my Prince Charming could think of something as thoughtful. On an occasion for celebrating our relationship, he finds a way to show his love and support of my passions. His constant encouragement is inspiration only true love can buy and for that I am endlessly grateful. With Hemingway as our witness, we toasted one year of marriage and many more years of happily ever after.

Neither of us wanted our anniversary to fade into just another calendar day gone by, but promises of homemade pasta and watching Midnight In Paris lured us off the sofas in the Ritz lobby. We left understanding why Coco Chanel called the Ritz her home and made a pinky swear pact to return next October 23rd for our "cotton" anniversary!